West Indies were delighted and Scotland was distraught during the World Cup Qualifier five years ago. The roles are reversed this time.
West Indies 181 (Holder 45, McMullen 3-32, Watt 2-25) were defeated by Scotland 185 for 3 (Cross 74*, McMullen 69) by seven wickets.
West Indies earned a spot in the 2019 ODI World Cup at Scotland’s expense five years ago in Harare as a result of a contentious umpiring call and a timely rain delay. The two-time winners’ luck ran out in 2023, as West Indies lost to Scotland by a score of 7 wickets in Harare, knocking them out of contention to advance to the World Cup in India.
As a result, the West Indies, which won the first two tournaments in 1975 and 1979 and also advanced to the final in 1983, will not be participating in the 13th iteration of the ODI World Cup.
While Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka are tied atop the Super Six with six points each, Scotland has four points and is a strong candidate for one of the two World Cup slots up for grabs at the Qualifiers. In Scotland’s first ODI victory over West Indies, all-rounder Brandon McMullen was the star with both the ball and the bat, taking three wickets and making 50 runs.
Due to the Qualifier structure, which saw West Indies carry 0 points from the group stage to the Super Six, they knew going into this game that a loss would eliminate them.
Scotland’s first three wickets went to McMullen within the first six overs after Scotland captain Richie Berrington asked them to bat in difficult conditions. Shamarh Brooks was out after swiping a wide ball to slip, Johnson Charles wafted one to cover point, Brandon King was double-bluffed by the cover fielder being shoved back, and he spooned a full and straight ball back to the bowler.
Chris Sole hit Kyle Mayer’s off stump with a bouncer and then a length to send it spinning. Safyaan Sharif stopped Shai Hope’s attempt to temper aggression with caution by opening up and nicking off Hope and sending their fight from the 2018 Qualifier back in time. McMullen bowled nine consecutive overs, finishing with game-winning stats of 3 for 32.
Jason Holder and Nicholas Pooran focused on stabilizing a shaky start as the score reached 60 for 5, batting together for 50 balls and scoring just 21 runs. However, Christopher McBride at the cow-corner boundary, was able to slog-sweep a flighted ball from Mark Watt that tempted Pooran.
When Holder and Romario Shepherd joined forces, they added 77 runs for the seventh wicket. However, when Shepherd tried to speed things up in the 37th over, a flying Sharif caught him at the point. West Indies were eventually all out for 181 in the 44th over when Chris Greaves trapped Holder in the lbw position three balls later.
In the first over of the chase, Scotland lost McBride, but that dismissal brought together McMullen and Matthew Cross, who cautiously handled the new-ball threat. Akeal Hosein tricked McMullen into a slog sweep in the 12th over, but Mayers missed the opportunity deep at midwicket.
In the 17th over, McMullen flat-batted an Alzarri Joseph hard-length ball for a six down the ground, demonstrating that he was in command of the chase. During their 125-run stand, both batters primarily moved the ball around, rotated strikes and built up their fifties. Scotland did not panic when McMullen found long on off Joseph because Cross was there to continue leading the chase, first with George Munsey and then with Berrington, to a successful conclusion in the 44th over.
With this loss, West Indies’ performance in white-ball cricket continued to deteriorate. Last year, the two-time T20 World Cup champions lost in the group stage of that competition. Pooran’s resignation as captain and the hiring of Daren Sammy as the white-ball coach resulted in a significant restructuring of the white-ball team. Sammy and Hope teamed up for this World Cup Qualifier, but the effort has been underwhelming. Losses to Zimbabwe, the Netherlands and now Scotland have ended West Indies’ aspirations of qualifying for the 2023 ODI World Cup in India.